“Nitro Acetone Naphthalene Peroxide”

(I don’t know if this would be the right name for this substance, and I’m pretty sure this isn’t correct, but this is what it shall be called until the proper name is discovered.) :p

This is a two part procedure.

Properties:

Light yellow crystals which are about the same size as baking flour, and have a strong smell of mothballs. Substance is sensitive to shock, friction, and impact. Mixture must be completely dry to detonate. Substance has a hard time detonating in amounts of under a gram. Product must be highly pressed to achieve detonation when using small quantities up to 3 grams. Substance is slightly less sensitive than Acetone Peroxide and also seems to be slightly more brisant. When a small amount unconfined comes into contact with flame or spark it decomposes immediately with a fireball and black smoke. Larger amounts may detonate. Detonation does not emit any smoke. NANP is soluble in alcohol and acetone, and insoluble in water.

Precursors:

25% H2O2
NH4NO3 (but I’m sure any nitrate could be used)
Acetone
Naphthalene
34% HCL


Procedure:
(Part 1)

-50ml of acetone is put into a beaker and warmed up to 60º C and then removed from heat.
-Powdered naphthalene is added to the acetone and stirred until no more naphthalene will dissolve.
-Add 5ml of acetone to dissolve the small amount of naphthalene that remains in the acetone
- Keep acetone/ naphthalene mixture in an airtight container until ready for part 2.

~~Note: Acetone/ naphthalene mixture will be yellowish~~

(Part 2)

-25ml of acetone/naphthalene mixture is placed into a 250ml beaker
-Beaker is placed in a bowl of water and crushed ice
-50ml of 25% H2O2 is added to Acetone/ naphthalene mixture 10ml at a time over a period of 10 minutes with slow stirring.
-5 grams of NH4NO3 is added to contents of the 250ml beaker and mixture is stirred until NH4NO3 has completely dissolved.
-Contents of the beaker are allowed to cool to 10º C or lower
-25ml of 34% HCL is added to solution in beaker 10ml at a time over a period of 10 minutes with slow stirring.
-Mixture is cooled for two hours, or until ice melts, and then mixture is left in bucket to sit at room temperature for a period of 20 hours.
-A light yellow precipitate should have formed a layer after 20 hours and the reaction should be done.
-Filter the precipitate. This is the NANP
-Wash the NANP with 200ml of cold water
-Make a 100ml solution of 10% sodium bicarbonate solution and wash NANP with this solution
-Wash NANP with 200ml more of cold water
-Spread filter out in a dry undisturbed place, spread NANP out on filter, and allow to dry for a period of 12 hours. (A Very strong smell of mothballs will be noticed, so place the filter in an area that is easily ventilated)
-After 12 hours the NANP should be dry. The NANP is now ready to be used.


I talked with Brainfever about this compound and the conclusion that was reached was that this is probably MNN covered AP. This would explain the smell and the fact that it seems to be slightly more powerful than regular ole' AP.

On a further note, 3g NANP was pressed into a straw and was used as the cap to detonate 27g of ANNC which was pressed into a tree.

Pics of NANP can be found here (http://i-was-bored.8m.com/NANP)
Pics of the tree can be uploaded and linked to if they need to be.

i agree with it being MNN mixed with AP. i'm not sure what else it could be really.

as for heating acetone to 60*C, good look! it boils at 56!

I slightly messed up there writing it down when I first made it. It should be 40. I first started letting the naphthalene dissolve and then I heated the mixture to get the naphthalene to dissolve quicker. Heating isn't really necessary. See what happens when you try to write procedures down from memory? Im positive about the rest of the synth procedure though.

How many grams did you get from the above batch?

Have you got any idea of storage stability? have you tested storing it?

Lets say that the AP as usual starts to decompose as soon as it is formed, then the ammount of AP in the explosive would drop during storage renderinng it less sensitive for each day that passes. Thus after a long time of storage the ammount of AP in it will be very low and the content of MNN very high.
So it's uses would change during storage since its sensitivity would change as the time passes.

Is there a solvent that only dissolves one of the two explosives? if so it would be interesting finding out how great the % of MNN in this explosive is.

MNN = Mono Nitro Naphtalene, right ?

Guilty!

I've stored this in a test tube for 2 weeks and it still worked fine. I also set some on a dish and even though I don't have an extremely accurate scale I dont think I lost any of it over the 3 days it set around. Again since I dont have an extremely accurate scale I cant say for sure what my yield was, but I think I got around 25g.

how does NANP's power compare with that of ordinary AP?

Where the MNN coming from?

There's napthalene and nitrate, but no acid to form nitric, so how's it turning into MNN?

It's not.

You're forming APAN in situ with napthalene dissolved into the mix.

You add some HCl in the mix, this is the origin of the H+ ions. As it's drown in water (low HCl conc. of course), it explains the formation of Mono-NN.

Try the process, minus the peroxide, and see if you get MNN then.

I don't think it too likely, as HCl is a weak acid compared to sulphuric, and really isn't suitable for a nitration via nitrate salt.

There are some nitrations which use HCl as the acid, i thought i saw one for RDX or maybe HDN.

RDX via HCl? I wish! :)

Its HDN that can be made with HCl/nitrate.

I doubt MNN was created though. It requires somewhat strong acids and a long, warm nitration. You also said your product smells like napthalene, but MNN doesn't really smell like napthalene. It smells very similar to napthalene, but its noticeably different; to me anyway.

I dont even think mixing MNN with AP would make a more powerful explosive, as im quite sure MNN doesn't even detonate and it has a very -OB.

There are several HDN synths on the net that use HCl + xNO3

ALEN's (http://www.angelfire.com/linux/alengg/main.html)

Mega's (http://roguesci.org/megalomania/explo/hexamethylenetetramine_dinitrate.html)


Mr Cool's (http://www.flashbangboom.homestead.com/procedures.html)

Using HCl lowers the yeild but it is still possible. So it may be posible to nitrate napthalene with HCl. I may try this today because I have all the stuff needed if some one can give me an idea on ammounts on the reactants.

I haven't done any tests personally to see if its any stronger besides taping a 1 gram cap to a metal "for sale" sign and the hole was a bit (not that much) larger than the one made by the 1 gram AP cap that was taped on next. Again I don't have a very accurate scale so I can imagine I might have had a little more than 1 g of NANP in the cap and possibly a little less than 1 gram of AP in the other cap.

It doesn't smell exactly like naphthalene but it smells very close. The smell of NANP gives me a headache after a while and regular ole naphthalene smell doesnt, I just find it very annoying after a while.

ok, for the formation of nitro aromatics you need the generation of NO2+ ions. this is part of the job of H2SO4 in usual nitrations. naphthalene can take on a nitro group pretty easily. i was thinking there must be an NO2+ source in this experiment.

the only thing i could think of was that some nitric acid will inevitably decompose forming NO2.
NO2 is itself a radical.
H2O2 will deompose forming O* radicals quite easily.

i think one possibility is this:
NO2 + O* --> O- + NO2+


if the synthesis could be carried out under a sun lamp or another UV source then it could be seen if the reaction was dependent on radical generation. UV would decompose more HNO3 and H2O2 so the reaction would proceed faster.

To me it seems that you must be making AP with several different impurities. There will likely be some traces of MNN, but not enough to affect the explosive properties directly I think.
However, it seems from your description of the product, that the crystals are somewhat smaller than mine were when I used to make AP.
This could arise from an effect similar to the effect of adding starch to Pb(NO3)2 before precipitating Pb(N3)2, and as such might well reduce sensitivity as well as increasing density when packing it in certain ways ( thus giving a seemingly more brisant product ).